Closure
by boshrocks
Summary: sweet little two-shot which may turn into a three-shot or a sequel if people like it enough. Draco's betrayal still weighs on Hermione's mind after seven years. Harry and Ron don't like to see her upset.
1. Chapter 1

"_Phew! It's hot today isn't it?" Hermione asked fanning herself with her hand._

"_It's always hot when you're around." Draco smirked, also fanning her. She smiled back and kissed him tenderly on the lips._

"_Ew! Not in public guys." Harry said from beside them._

"_You're just jealous." Draco said, earning himself a playful punch on the arm from Harry._

"_Seriously guys, how can you not be boiling?" Hermione stated. "Sweat's just running off me."_

"_Hm, yummy. Brings back memories." Draco ran a hand up her bare leg towards her school skirt._

"_Again: ew! Keep that kind of stuff to yourselves. Please." _

_Laughing at Harry they stopped their intimacies. Hermione lay down with her head in Draco's lap._

"_Do I want to know?" Ron asked, joining them on the grass in the sun soaked grounds of Hogwarts, a jug of iced pumpkin juice and three goblets in his hands. He poured them out and handed one to Draco and Harry, Hermione immediately drank some of Draco's and seemed to cool down a little._

"_You really don't." Harry looked away pointedly as Draco pulled Hermione's head up to be kissed again, this time with more passion. Draco made a comment about how she tasted of pumpkin juice, causing Harry to mime puking. Ron laughed at Harry._

"_Hey everything we do is legal. We're overage and hello!" Hermione wiggled her left hand happily, where the huge emerald and diamond engagement ring was rather prominent. _

_Draco took her hand and kissed it. Laying his left arm over her chest she stroked his arm gently._

"_That reminds me we should start planning the wedding." She said lazily._

"_But baby I thought we agreed to get married after the war."_

"_What if neither of us survives the war? You want the world to see the reformed you, don't you?"_

"_Yes my darling I do, but we agreed to wait until after it was all over."_

"_Hopefully it won't last too long, if just for you guys." Harry put in._

"_I don't think it's too far in the future now. I've got that feeling that you get when you know something terrible's going to happen." Hermione smiled up at Draco and kissed the palm of his hand, letting him know without words that they'd come through and the wedding could wait._

_Then something caught her eye on his arm beneath his white shirtsleeve. Sitting up abruptly she grabbed the hand and shoved the sleeve up above the elbow._

_The Dark Mark was burned into his skin. _

_Her eyes met his in horror, pain, disbelief and anger. He looked anxious. _

_Harry and Ron had got to their feet but they had yet to pull Hermione to hers._

_Then the look in Hermione's eyes changed and he hated to see it. It was pure loathing. It was also full of pain, as tears threatened to fall._

_Now she got to her feet and as she did she aged a few years and the scene changed and darkened. Now it was night, and the battlefield was a graveyard. _

_Twenty-one year old Hermione held her wand as steady as she could as she faced off in her duel with Draco. All around them the other duels had been called to a halt by Voldemort as this one was guaranteed to be a good show._

_She was almost in tears as she faced her fiancé. It was almost the same look she had worn when she found the Mark. He looked like he didn't want to fight her and with something like remorse in his eyes. The engagement ring glinted in the firelight and his eye was drawn to it. For a moment something like hope flickered in his face._

_But she wouldn't allow that and cast the first spell at him, which he ducked and it hit the grave marker behind him, shattering the stone. A fragment of stone struck him above the eye, forming a short gash and starting to bleed. Now he was angry, but he was still Draco. "Don't make me." he mouthed at her. She glared back determinedly, raising her left hand defiantly. His spell struck her on the side of the neck, slashing a long deep cut._

Hermione awoke crying his name and sat up straight into Harry's arms. A few lamps clicked on. Her hand went to her neck, and felt the long scar.

Harry took her hand away from her neck. "Sh, it's alright. It's just another dream. I'm here. Ron's here too. The past can't hurt you anymore." Harry soothed, rubbing her back as she sobbed into his shoulder.

"It's the same dream isn't it?" Ron asked gently, sitting on the other side of the bed. "The one about…him?"

"Yes." Hermione sobbed. "I can't get rid of the memory, even after all these years."

Ron reached over and stroked her hair tenderly. "Seven years since the last battle. It's not that long ago, and none of us lost as much as you did."

"How can we help you? Mione we want to know how to help get you over this. You'll make yourself ill again."

"You can rewrite the past. Make that day go away. That should do the trick." Hermione managed a small tearful laugh.

Her best friends chuckled sympathetically. "Will you be alright on your own for a little bit? I'm just going to fetch that sleeping draught and Ron will get you a snack. You can't take the potion on an empty stomach." Harry mothered, settling Hermione back against her pillows.

Their eyes fell on the diagonal scar on the side of her neck; a relic from the duel with Draco. It ran from the space under her right ear down to the dip between her collarbones. It was still red, and refused to turn white. It still bothered her, throbbing constantly. But they knew it didn't hurt nearly as much as his treachery. That invisible scar ran far deeper and would never heal. It made her heart bleed, killing her slowly.

Harry and Ron left and Hermione traced the red scar a few times. It had been a blow from him that almost felt like a kiss, her tenderest pleasure spot having been under where it was. She could still feel his lips on her skin, both burning and freezing her at the same time. No one could excite her like he did.

She reached over to her bedside cabinet and opened the drawer, pulling out a green velvet ring box. Gently she opened it, revealing the engagement ring, still as sparkly and as beautiful as the day he'd given it to her. She'd only just turned seventeen and they both knew they were too young but it didn't matter. He was her soulmate, her other half. With him she could be exactly herself; she could be free. He was her equal and no one understood her like he did. He was her world, her everything.

But it hadn't been enough. Not for him.

Ron and Harry paused outside her open bedroom door, unseen by her. Ron gave Harry a pointed look.

"Don't say it again." Harry warned.

"Closure. She needs it."

Harry just glared.

"You know it's true." Ron pointed out.

"Ugh, fine. But let the record show that I'm against it."

Ron grinned at finally having won their ongoing quarrel. "I'm borrowing Hedwig."

"He knows Hedwig. They used to use her all the time. Just use Pig."

"It's too far for him."

Harry sighed. "Fine, take her. The letter'll tell him who we are anyway."

"I love it when I win." Ron said leading the way into Hermione's bedroom to administer the sleeping drought and snack.


	2. Chapter 2

Draco sat in the corner of the little coffee shop and looked around him. The other customers were all bright and happy, taking shelter from the pelting rain; none of them took any notice of the morose blond man. He checked his expensive pocket watch and glanced at the door again. She was late.

Once again he ran through his little speech in his head. He hadn't got halfway through it however when the little bell tinkled as the door opened.

There she was. She didn't look too different, the same wild beautiful hair and intelligent brown eyes. She was a little thinner now however, less healthy, her cheeks were pinched and her cheekbones a little more clearly defined. She was taller now though and it looked like she hadn't smiled or laughed in a long time. He still thought she was beautiful though. She shook out her umbrella and removed her cloak.

Behind her Harry and Ron entered, and Draco thought it was a good thing they were there because as soon as Hermione saw him she frowned and turned to leave. Her friends stopped her and talked to her encouragingly. They physically turned her round and Ron gave her a little push towards him.

Draco smiled and got up as she approached him. There was a little awkwardness as to how he should greet her, but she seemed to find it endearing.

He ordered her a coffee and she was a little pleased to see he remembered how she liked her coffee. She refused to show it however.

They chatted awkwardly about what they were doing these days, but the conversation was stilted and forced, and she refused to look at him. They carefully avoided the war and school.

After that they lapsed into silence.

"I miss you." he said, barely above a whisper.

She looked at him carefully and saw that he meant it. "You hurt me. You were the one person who never would, and yet you did." She said coldly, but quietly.

"Let me explain. My father was furious with me for falling for you so deeply. He was always trying to persuade me to dump you. I held firm though. You were the best thing that ever happened to me, and I wasn't about to let that go."

"And yet you took the Dark Mark. Why?" it took all her iron will to remain firm.

"I only took it because I had no choice. You know me, I would never join them of my own free will. The only way I would have joined them is if they threatened the person I love the most. I didn't care if they threatened me, which they did, but it had no effect. So they got to me through you. They said that to test my love I would have to take the mark, and do what they wanted, otherwise they'd kidnap you and do horrible things to you before forcing me to watch you be murdered or even worse; to force me to kill you. It was the only way I could save your life."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I knew you would say that it didn't matter. You'd tell me to stand firm and defy them; that you could handle any torture they inflicted on you. That whatever they did to you wouldn't matter, as long as I stayed true to my principles. I was going to tell you, I swear. But you found it before I could, and then you didn't give me a chance."

"I wanted to. I felt sure that they'd forced you, I thought I knew you better. But Harry wouldn't let me be alone with you. He'd tell me off if I even looked at you. Harry said he'd been expecting you to turn on me for a while; the happiness just couldn't last. He never liked you and he never thought it would work out between us. He never let me talk to you after that. I thought at least Ron would be on our side, but he held firm too." Hermione's hand wandered to her scar.

"Does that still hurt?" he said with concern, indicating it.

"Not as much as your betrayal."

"I'm sorry for both. I never ever wanted see you hurt, especially at my hand. I was just trying to protect you."

Hermione was silent for a while. "I see that now. I tried to hate you, I thought it would make it easier. But I still can't manage it. I dream about that last day all the time. I was never happier than when we were together."

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry I let my father ruin it all. Hermione, I still love you. I never stop thinking about you, and it's killing me knowing that you don't love me anymore."

"I said I couldn't hate you. I never said I stopped loving you. Call me a fool if you like, especially after everything you've put me through but I still love you."

Draco beamed at her. "You do?"

Hermione shut her eyes and nodded. Draco leant across the table and kissed her gently on the lips. Her eyes shot open and she stood up quickly.

"I can't do this." She cried before running from the coffee shop.

Draco, also on his feet, looked at Harry and Ron, sitting unobtrusively nearby.

"Go after her." Ron urged.

Draco nodded and left. He searched Diagon Alley but there was no sign of her anywhere. Then he spotted her. She was sitting on the steps of a vacant shop, shivering in cold having forgotten her cloak and clearly weeping into her knees.

Draco sat beside her and hesitantly put an arm around her. She looked up but she didn't recoil as he had half expected her to. Instead she leant against him.

"I'm sorry I ran out like that. I panicked."

"It's alright, My. I know why you did. It's too soon for anything like that isn't it? I just…I want you back in my life. I've been in a dark place for ten years, and you were the only light in it."

"I know the feeling. I feel like I haven't seen the sun since that last very hot day. I haven't been warm since that. Harry and Ron are great, but they're not you. I could never have with them what I had with you."

"You were my world. And my sun and moon. Imagine living without any of them for a decade. I wanted to give up sometimes, but then I'd see a photograph of the two of us and remembered that life was perfect with you in it, and I hoped that one day you'd be back in my life."

Hermione smiled and grasped the front of his shirt. "I want you back in my life. I want things back the way they were, when you were mine and I was yours. I want to get back that feeling I felt when I told myself I was going to be Mrs Draco Malfoy. I want wake up with you next to me every morning. I miss your little jokes which weren't that funny but I'd laugh anyway to please you. I miss your laugh, and your protecting embrace. I miss hearing your heartbeat when you held me, and the way mine beat in tandem with yours. I miss the kiss that makes me never want to let you go, and that smirk that makes my knees buckle. I miss how special you made me feel; when you looked at me it was like I was the only person in the world. I miss the goofy little dance you used to do when you realised you were going to get some that night. The same dance you did when you beat Ron at chess, or when I made you happy in some little way. I miss the way you'd spontaneously kiss my cheek or my forehead for no reason whatsoever, and how you'd reply that you 'just felt like it' when I asked why you'd done it. I miss how you wouldn't let me get out of bed in the morning without kissing you first. I even miss your snoring, even though it did keep me up half the night. I miss the way you smelt when you held me close. I miss how safe I felt in your arms; nothing could hurt me because you were there to protect me. I guess I just miss you."

Draco kissed her forehead tenderly. He fished in a pocket and brought out the engagement ring. "Ron sent this with the letter, although he said he didn't know what good it would do. I want you to be mine again. You. All that you are. Good mood, bad mood, scary time of the month, unpredictable mood swings, all of it. I want you to be my wife. I want to spend the rest of my life with you by my side."

Hermione smiled and took the ring from him. "It felt so right, sitting there on my finger. I wore it through the war, as though you'd come rushing back to me because I was wearing the ring you gave me. After that I took it off and shut it away, taking it out again just to look at it, missing you and missing how empty my hand looked without it, and I'd think how empty my life was without the person who gave it to me."

Tenderly Draco took her chin and tilted her face up to meet his. Kissing her lovingly he slipped the ring onto the engagement finger and took the hand, plaiting their fingers together, telling her without words that her life wouldn't be empty any longer.

Back in the coffee shop, half an hour later, Harry and Ron were beginning to get a bit nervous. In their minds they imagined the worst scenarios and it was with great relief that they heard the little bell tinkle as Hermione came back in with Draco, still holding hands.

They got up, not knowing what to think. Hermione exchanged a grin with Draco who beamed proudly back and yanked their clasped hands into the air so the engagement ring was clearly visible. Harry and Ron cheered and the rest of the coffee shop applauded, just because the couple looked so blissfully happy.


End file.
